29 November 2010 Last updated at 14:45

In pictures: Undiplomatic view of world leaders

Documents leaked by the Wikileaks whistle-blowing site have left Washington red-faced - particularly those documenting envoys' assessments of world leaders. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was mockingly described as an "Alpha Dog"...

... while President Dmitry Medvedev is described as playing "Robin" to Mr Putin's "Batman." On Monday, a presidential spokesman told journalists: "Fictive Hollywood characters hardly need any comment."

Italy's Silvio Berlusconi "appears increasingly to be the mouthpiece of Putin" in Europe, according to one cable.

Another cable described the Italian Prime Minister as "feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader." One envoy said he was "physically and politically weak," and that he was tired out from too much partying.

The word used to describe Germany's Angela Merkel was "Teflon" - meaning that bad things didn't stick to her. One envoy said she also avoided risk and was "rarely creative."

The documents describe President Nicolas Sarkozy as "touchy." The US embassy called him "thin-skinned and authoritarian," pointing to his rebukes of his team. But, perhaps the most unflattering was the description of him as "the emperor with no clothes."

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was partly portrayed in a flattering light - being described as "elegant and charming." But he was also accused in one cable from Cairo as never keeping his promises.

A dispatch from Kabul reports the view that the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, is "an extremely weak man who did not listen to facts but was instead easily swayed by anyone who came to report even the most bizarre stories or plots against him."

Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, was said to be accompanied everywhere by a "voluptuous blonde" Ukrainian nurse.

In one 2007 cable, an envoy described Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe as "more clever and more ruthless than any other politician in Zimbabwe." He added: "To give the devil his due, he is a brilliant tactician."

In leaked documents, diplomats quote sources describing North Korea's Kim Jong-il variously as a "flabby old chap" and someone who had suffered "physical and psychological trauma" as a result of his stroke.

World

In pictures: Undiplomatic view of world leaders

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